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a very steep bank. He stood on this bank, and at the
base he noticed a small opening. On going down to examine it more closely, he
found it was large enough to admit a horse or buffalo. On either side of the
door were figures of different animals engraved into the wall.
“He
entered the opening and there, scattered about on the floor, lay many bracelets,
pipes and many other things of ornament, as though they had been offerings to
some great spirit. He passed through this first room and on entering the second
it was so dark that he could not see his hand before his face, so becoming
scared, he hurriedly left the place, and returning home told what he had seen.
“Upon
hearing this the chief selected four of his most daring warriors to go with
this young man and investigate and ascertain whether the young man was telling
the truth or not. The five proceeded to the butte, and at the entrance the
young man refused
to go inside, as the figures on either side of the
entrance had been changed.
“The
(other) four entered and seeing that all in the first chamber was as the young
maw had told, they went on to the next chamber and found it so dark that they
could not see anything. They continued on, however, feeling their way along the
walls. They finally found an entrance that was so narrow that they had to
squeeze into it sideways. They felt their way along the walls and found another
entrance, so low down that they had to crawl on their hands and knees to go
through into the next chamber.
“On
entering the last chamber they found a very sweet odor coming from the opposite
direction. Feeling around and crawling on their hands and knees, they
discovered a hole in the floor leading downward. From this hole came up the
sweet odor. They hurriedly held a council, and decided to go no further, but
return to the camp and report what they had found. On getting to